MB/s to Mbps
1 megabyte per second equals 8 megabits per second exactly.
How to convert megabytes per second to megabits per second
To convert megabytes per second to megabits per second, multiply the number of megabytes per second by 8. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply megabits per second by 0.125.
megabits per second = megabytes per second × 8
Example: 10 megabytes per second = 80 megabits per second.
Network speeds are quoted in bits per second (lowercase b), while file sizes use bytes (uppercase B). Divide Mbps by 8 for MB/s.
About these units
Megabyte Per Second (MB/s)
1,000,000 bytes per second (8 Mbps). Disk and download speeds are shown in MB/s.
Megabytes per second inherit all the confusion of the megabyte itself. The word has meant 1,000,000 bytes in networking, hard drives and DVDs, 1,048,576 bytes for memory under Microsoft Windows, and 1,024,000 bytes for the 3.5-inch floppy disk marketed as 1.44 MB, which actually held 1,474,560 bytes. In 1999 the IEC defined megabyte as 10⁶ bytes and mebibyte as 2²⁰ bytes, and by the end of 2009 the IEEE, EU, ISO and NIST had adopted that standard.
As a rate, 1 MB/s is 1,000,000 bytes per second, or 8 Mbit/s. File copies, game installers and disk benchmarks usually show MB/s, while internet plans use Mbit/s, so a 100 Mbit/s plan tops out near 12.5 MB/s. As a feel for size, about one minute of 128 kbit/s MP3 audio fits in roughly 1 MB, so a link carrying 1 MB/s moves about a minute of such audio every second.
1 megabyte per second = 8,000,000 bits per second (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Megabyte; NIST: Prefixes for binary multiples; Wikipedia: Data-rate units
Megabit Per Second (Mbps)
1,000,000 bits per second. The unit of internet connection speeds; 8 Mbps is 1 MB/s.
Megabits entered everyday life through Ethernet. The original 10BASE5 version arrived in 1981 at 10 Mbit/s, Fast Ethernet raised the figure to 100 Mbit/s in 1995, and wireless followed, with 802.11b offering 11 Mbit/s in 1999. Telecommunications engineers had always meant exactly one million bits per second by the megabit, while computer memory vendors were stretching the word mega toward powers of two. That divergence is part of why the IEC later published separate binary prefixes.
Internet providers still sell service in Mbit/s, which is why a plan and a download counter seem to disagree. A byte is eight bits, so 100 Mbit/s is at most 12.5 MB/s, and a 1 GB file needs about 80 seconds at that rate under ideal conditions. Streaming is far lighter: YouTube video at 1080p is listed at roughly 3 to 8 Mbit/s with H.264, and 2160p at 8 to 35 Mbit/s. Real throughput is lower than the line rate because of protocol overhead.
1 megabit per second = 1,000,000 bits per second (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Bit rate (Ethernet, Wi-Fi and streaming rates); NIST: Prefixes for binary multiples; Wikipedia: Megabit
Related conversions
- Mbps to MB/s (reverse)
- MB/s to bps
- MB/s to Kbps
- MB/s to Gbps
- MB/s to Tbps
- MB/s to B/s
- MB/s to KB/s
- MB/s to GB/s
- MB/s to MiB/s
- MB/s to Kibit/s
- MB/s to Mibit/s
- MB/s to Gibit/s
- MB/s to KiB/s
- Bps to Mbps
- Kbps to Mbps
- Gbps to Mbps
- Tbps to Mbps
- B/s to Mbps
- KB/s to Mbps
- GB/s to Mbps
- MiB/s to Mbps
- Kibit/s to Mbps
- Mibit/s to Mbps
- Gibit/s to Mbps
- KiB/s to Mbps
See all data transfer rate units.